New Jersey and the Rebellion


Book Description

This book details the involvement of New Jersey troops in the Civil War.




Inside Newark


Book Description

For decades, leaders in Newark, New Jersey, have claimed their city is about to return to its vibrant past. How accurate is this prediction? Is Newark on the verge of revitalization? Robert Curvin, who was one of New Jersey’s outstanding civil rights leaders, examines the city, chronicling its history, politics, and culture. Throughout the pages of Inside Newark, Curvin approaches his story both as an insider who is rooting for Newark and as an objective social scientist illuminating the causes and effects of sweeping changes in the city Based on historical records and revealing interviews with over one hundred residents and officials, Inside Newark traces Newark’s history from the 1950s, when the city was a thriving industrial center, to the era of Mayor Cory Booker. Along the way, Curvin covers the disturbances of July 1967, called a riot by the media and a rebellion by residents; the administration of Kenneth Gibson, the first black mayor of a large northeastern city; and the era of Sharpe James, who was found guilty of corruption. Curvin examines damaging housing and mortgage policies, the state takeover of the failing school system, the persistence of corruption and patronage, Newark’s shifting ethnic and racial composition, positive developments in housing and business complexes, and the reign of ambitious mayor Cory Booker. Inside Newark reveals a central weakness that continues to plague Newark—that throughout this history, elected officials have not risen to the challenges they have faced. Curvin calls on those in positions of influence to work for the social and economic improvement of all groups and concludes with suggestions for change, focusing on education reform, civic participation, financial management, partnerships with agencies and business, improving Newark’s City Council, and limiting the term of the mayor. If Newark’s leadership can encompass these changes, Newark will have a chance at a true turnaround. Watch a video with Robert Curvin: Watch video now. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-d6zV2OQ8A).







Revolutionary New Jersey


Book Description

Many of the critical events and dreadful realities of the intense warfare in New Jersey during the American Revolution have been forgotten, neglected, or lost to history. Sites in the Garden State where patriots fought and died remain unmarked, shrouded in mystery, clouded in mythology, or concealed by obscure accounts and dull statistics. Many places in the "Crossroads of the Revolution" state have entirely disappeared, while others languish unnoticed or have been built over by town development and local highways. Many of the Garden State residents who commute every day over heavily trafficked streets are completely unaware of the fierce struggles that occurred along their route during America's most important war. In "Revolutionary New Jersey" New Jersey-based author Robert Mayers has rediscovered and revived the history of previously forsaken locations by exploring them in person. He then enhances his observations from on-site visits with fresh research from original documents, often discovered in obscure British, Hessian and French records. The reader is subsequently transported to the battlefields and encampments in three theaters of the conflict in New Jersey- "The War in the Countryside," "The War at the Shore" and "New Jersey Campgrounds"-by describing Revolutionary events which occurred in more than 100 present-day towns. This narrative escorts readers back in time to feel, see, and hear the action that occurred over 200 years ago in familiar settings. It is hoped that all readers of Bob Mayers's newest book will acquire a new respect for the Revolutionary War events that took place locally (and in some instances in their own backyards). It is through this awareness that local sites might be maintained, and the glorious memory of those individuals who fought for our freedom preserved for the future.




No Cause for Indictment


Book Description

The definitive account of the buildup, chaos, and aftermath of one of the worst urban riots in US history: the 1967 Newark riots. Being re-issued on the fortieth anniversary of the devastating event, No Cause For Indictment is a must-read to understand issues still facing urban America: poverty, political corruption, and racism. Forty years ago, Newark's oppressed black majority erupted in revolt and were ruthlessly put down by the police and National Guard units. When other reporters were too afraid, Ronald Porambo walked the streets of Newark and took four years to research and write the whole story. Its publication resulted in two attempts on his life. This edition includes an introduction from the editor of the original manuscript about the tumult surrounding the book's publication, and an afterword interviewing the author about the struggles he faced after publication.




Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue


Book Description

An engaging and enlightening account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British ignited a rebellion in Sierra Leone by imposing a tax on huts—and, in repressing it, ended up burning the very huts they intended to tax. Sometimes they succeed astonishingly, as when, in eighteenth-century Britain, a cut in the tax on tea massively increased revenue. In this entertaining book, two leading authorities on taxation, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, provide a fascinating and informative tour through these and many other episodes in tax history, both preposterous and dramatic—from the plundering described by Herodotus and an Incan tax payable in lice to the (misremembered) Boston Tea Party and the scandals of the Panama Papers. Along the way, readers meet a colorful cast of tax rascals, and even a few tax heroes. While it is hard to fathom the inspiration behind such taxes as one on ships that tended to make them sink, Keen and Slemrod show that yesterday’s tax systems have more in common with ours than we may think. Georgian England’s window tax now seems quaint, but was an ingenious way of judging wealth unobtrusively. And Tsar Peter the Great’s tax on beards aimed to induce the nobility to shave, much like today’s carbon taxes aim to slow global warming. Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue is a surprising and one-of-a-kind account of how history illuminates the perennial challenges and timeless principles of taxation—and how the past holds clues to solving the tax problems of today.




New Brunswick and the Civil War


Book Description

At the beginning of the Civil War, New Brunswick was positioned at the transportation and manufacturing hub of New Jersey. Many of the city's young men exchanged manufacturing equipment for rifles, and those whom they left behind witnessed the war through letters from their sons, brothers and husbands. Patriotism, a longing to earn more money and adventure lured these "Brunswick Boys"--close friends and co-workers--to enlist. Their recollections offer insights into everyday life in New Jersey during the war--New Brunswick's factory system, education and medicine. These letters also reveal their struggles to survive amid battles and close encounters with death that so many soldiers faced, as well as their difficult transition back to civilian life. Local author Joanne Hamilton Rajoppi presents the fascinating stories of New Brunswick and the Civil War, gleaned from the letters of those who experienced it.




Rebellion in the Ranks


Book Description

How General Washington Avoided the Peril From Within His Own Forces "It gives me great pain to be obliged to solicit the attention of the honorable Congress to the state of the army...the greater part of the army is in a state not far from mutiny...I know not to whom to impute this failure, but I am of the opinion, if the evil is not immediately remedied and more punctuality observed in future, the army must absolutely break up."--George Washington, September 1775 Mutiny has always been a threat to the integrity of armies, particularly under trying circumstances, and since Concord and Lexington, mutiny had been the Continental Army's constant traveling companion. It was not because the soldiers lacked resolve to overturn British rule or had a lack of faith in their commanders. It was the scarcity of food--during winter months it was not uncommon for soldiers to subsist on a soup of melted snow, a few peas, and a scrap of fat--money, clothing, and proper shelter, that forced soldiers to desert or organize resistance. Mutiny was not a new concept for George Washington. During his service in the French and Indian War he had tried men under his command for the offense and he knew that disaffection and lack of morale in an army was a greater danger than an armed enemy. In Rebellion in the Ranks: Mutinies of the American Revolution, John A. Nagy provides one of the most original and valuable contributions to American Revolutionary War history in recent times. Mining previously ignored British and American primary source documents and reexamining other period writings, Nagy has corrected misconceptions about known events, such as the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny, while identifying for the first time previously unknown mutinies. Covering both the army and the navy, Nagy relates American officers' constant struggle to keep up the morale of their troops, while highlighting British efforts to exploit this potentially fatal flaw.







Wages of Rebellion


Book Description

Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges -- who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class -- investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization. Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as "sublime madness" -- the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this "sublime madness." From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.